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THE ZEBRA AND THE WISHING-FAIRY 






I shall give you the loveliest thing I can think of: 
that you should always be happy” 





THE ZEBRA 

AND THE 

WISHING-FAIRY 

AND OTHER STORIES 

BY 

CORINNE INGRAHAM 

[“coflIWe”] 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 

Dugald Stewart Walker h 



NEW YORK 

BRENTANO’S 

PUBLISHERS 







Copyright, 1921, by 

BRENTANO’S 


All rights reserved 



DOT 28 21 


§)CI. A630043 
















Zo 

MY CHILDREN 

CORINNE AND PHOENIX 
TO WHOM THESE LITTLE 
STORIES WERE FIRST TOLD 























































FOREWORD 


^ELL a child stories of legends and of fairies, so that 
he can hear the music of the little creatures of the 
woods, and can sense the throbbing of the flowers’ 
hearts; and you will have given him some¬ 
thing that will tint his whole life with 
beauty—a beauty which sordid details of 
the world can not smother. 

The young mind should early be im¬ 
pregnated with the poetry of nature; for 
without doubt the impressions of baby¬ 
hood remain the most poignant of life. 

It is my conviction that only by constant repetition in the 
simple and direct wording familiar to a child can big under¬ 
lying truths be accentuated in his forming mind. 

With this in view I have tried in the following sketches to 
establish a certain animal fellowship, including a moral sig¬ 
nificance which the little one will unconsciously accept. 

I should like to see in every nursery a song-bird, 
a bowl of fish and a pot of growing flowers,—and 
without, the wide, wild fields and woods. 




Corrinne Ingraham. 



























I 


* 


• ' < r 





\ 






i 



THE ZEBRA AND THE WISHING-FAIRY 



XII 


THE ZEBRA AND THE WISHING-FAIRY 


^HE Zebra, as you know, is a cousin of the Horse. 

It is a little Horse—quite tiny—and full of fun, 
for it loves to play and romp about. 

One day when the Zebra was running around the 
country, it saw the Giraffe. 

Of course it was very surprised to see that the Gi¬ 
raffe, since they had last seen one another, had grown 
a wonderful and long neck—a neck so long that the 
Giraffe could reach all the young juicy leaves at 
the tops of the trees, so the Zebra asked the Giraffe 
to tell him how he got the neck—and what had hap¬ 
pened to him. When the Zebra asked him all about every¬ 
thing, the Giraffe said: 







THE ZEBRA AND THE WISHING-FAIRY 


“Well, you and I can go away by ourselves where no one 
can hear us, and then I will tell you a secret—a secret of which 
I haven’t told any one—yet.” 

The Zebra was awfully curious. 

Every one is curious, but some of us are more so than others. 

Are you? 

In a way it is a good thing to 
be curious, for when we are we 
learn all sorts of new and inter¬ 
esting things—things that we 
really ought to know. 

“What is your secret?” the 
Zebra asked the Giraffe. 

“My secret?” The Giraffe 
thought a moment. “Well, I’ll 
tell you— It is this. For a long while I had wished and 
wished and wished that I could reach far up enough to eat the 
little young leaves on the tops of the trees. Don’t tell any one 
what I am telling you, because really it is a secret.” 

“Of course I won’t,” the Zebra said. “Do you for one mo¬ 
ment think that I would tell some one’s secret to any one else— 
a thing that you ask me not to tell? I promise I won’t—and as 
you know nobody can break a promise any more than any one 
can tell some one else’s secret. Go on. Is that how you got 
your long neck? By going to see Stella, the Wishing-Fairy?” 

“Yes, I told her that I wished for one very much, and she— 
well, she just gave me one. It is splendid; for now I can reach 




THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


away up to the tops of the trees and can eat the best leaves— 
the young and tender ones.” 

“I have a wish too,” said the Zebra. 

“What is it?” the Giraffe asked. 

“Well, I will try and explain,” answered the Zebra. “I love 
colors. If I see a beautiful red or green or blue—or for that 
matter any color—it always gives me pleasure; why I even 
want to touch the color, so that at the same time I see it I can 
feel it. Do you know what I mean?” 

“Perfectly,” answered the Giraffe. “By the way, I like the 
colors I am, the colors of brown and black—do you?” and he 
turned his long neck around and looked at himself. 

“Yes, I do. I wish I were some other color. I am tired of 
being a gray-brown. Do you know what I should like?” 

“What?” asked the Giraffe. 

“I should like to have some stripes around me; stripes that 
look like black satin ribbons.” 

“I think that would be nice,” the Giraffe answered. He 
said nothing for a moment, for he was thinking. “Yes,” he 
went on, “the tiger has black stripes and tigers are very beau¬ 
tiful. Do you know why the tiger has those stripes?” 

“No,” said the Zebra, “why?” 

“Because he generally lives among long thin jungle leaves, 
and the stripes make him look the same as the leaves, so that 
no one bothers him. It is quite hard to see him—unless you 
are very close. Shall I tell you how to get what you want?” 

“Yes, indeed,” cried the Zebra, “I should love to know.” 


THE ZEBRA AND THE WISHING-FAIRY 


“Go to see Stella, at the End-of-the-earth. 

She makes wishes come true.” 

“Will you show me the way?” the Zebra asked. 

“Well, I’ll go part of the way with you,” the 
Giraffe said. “It will be easier and we 
can talk and play together, for, you know, 
it is very far from here.” 

“Yes, I suppose it is,” said the Zebra. 

‘Come, let us start now. 

I can hardly wait to see 
Stella and tell her my 
wish. Are you sure 
she will make it come 
true?” 

“Sure?” answered the 
Giraffe. “Of course I 
am sure. Didn’t she give me this long neck? Just because I 
wished for it. That was it—and because I knew that after I 
had told her my troubles she would help me. Come, we will 
Btart now.” 

For a long while they ran along side by side, and then the 
Giraffe, who was very tired, stopped a moment. 

“I think I have gone far enough,” he said. “Now, you 
know the way, and I am quite sure that you will not get lost. 
Just keep straight on,” and he pointed ahead with one of his 
forefeet. 

“Very well,” said the Zebra, “good-by; and thanks so 



THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


much for having come this far with me. Good-by, good-by.’’ 

He started off very quickly, while the Giraffe stood and 
watched him disappear behind the hills. 

The Zebra ran and ran and ran, and it seemed as though 
he would never reach the Wishing-Fairy. Night came on, 
so he lay down underneath a big tree and went fast asleep. 
In the morning when the sun woke him up by shining in his 
eyes, he went to the river and had a long drink and ate a lot 
of grass. (That is what zebras eat.) When he had had 
enough breakfast he began running again. 

All of a sudden he caught one foot in a hole and over he 
went. He had an awful fall, and he turned his foot very 
badly. It hurt him a great deal. It hurt him so much that 
he had to stop. After a while he felt that he could begin 
running again, but he was limping terribly. By this time he 
was very near Stella’s home, and the first thing he did when 
he saw her was to show her his foot and ask her to make it 
well. 

Stella sent the Brownies for some water, and when they 
brought some from the Get-little-pool to the Zebra in their 
tiny shell-buckets, she first made him drink so that he would 
become little enough to have her come near him; then she put 
the rest of the water on a bandage and wound it around his 
foot, and all of a sudden it stopped hurting. 

“Now,” said Stella, “just lie down on the grass and tell me 
what else I can do for you.” 



“Stella waved her wand and the Zebra had his stripes’’ 

















































% 

















THE ZEBRA AND THE WISHING-FAIRY 


“You can make my wish come true,” the Zebra said. “I 
hope you will.” 

“What do you want?” Stella asked. 

“I want some black stripes all around me. I think they 
would be very pretty. Stripes that would look like black 
satin ribbons.” 

So Stella waved her wand three times around him and the 
Zebra had his stripes. 

He was very happy because his wish had come true, and he 
could hardly wait to run home again and show himself to the 
Giraffe. 

So now you know how the Zebra got his black stripes. 








XIV 


THE PORCUPINE 


T HE poor old Porcupine was very angry and tired. 

He was also wet, for it had been raining all day. 
He had crept down into the hole where he lived, 
so as to be alone and try to get happy again. 

Do you want to know why he was angry and 
tired? 

Because everywhere he had been that day he had 
somehow or other gotten into trouble. 

First, he had walked too near a big goose and her 
family, and the mother goose, thinking that he 
wanted to hurt her babies, had stretched out her 
wings as wide as she could and had flown at him. With her 
strong bill she had pecked and pecked and pecked him. It 





THE PORCUPINE 


had hurt very much, for geese are aw¬ 
fully strong. Then, after he got away 
from her, he had wandered into the 
farmer’s pig-sty where a very large 
pig had rushed at him and bit him. He had a terrible fight 
with the pig. After that a wild-cat had sprung down at him 
from the lower branches of a tree and it had bitten and 
scratched, bitten and scratched and bitten and scratched him 
until he was all torn and bleeding. 

Every one of these accidents made him a 

little bit angrier, until tT at last he was more an¬ 
gry than he had ever been in his whole life. 

After he had been ’ alone a while in the 

comfortable hole in the ground that was his home he went 
to sleep; which was the best thing that could have hap¬ 
pened. 

When he woke he was rested, the hurt places all over his 
poor little body were no longer bleeding, and it had stopped 
raining. 

What do you suppose woke him up? 

Mr. and Mrs. Owl were sitting together in a bush that was 
near his home, and Mr. 

Owl was talking about a 
field-mouse he had almost 
caught, but it had gotten 
away from him. Mr. Owl said he had caught three mice that 
day and Mrs. Owl said not at all, that he had only caught two 





THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


mice. They were talking so loud that that was what had 
wakened the Porcupine. 

The Porcupine didn’t move. He was more comfortable in 
the hole than he had been all day, so he lay there and listened. 

After Mr. and Mrs. Owl had finished fussing about the 
mice, they began talking of the End-of-the-earth and of Stella. 



The Porcupine heard all this, and that was how he first knew 
about the Wishing-Fairy. 

He no sooner knew about her than he made up his mind to 
go to her. 

He wanted very much to tell her his troubles and see if she 
could help him, so he dragged himself up out of his hole and 
started then and there for the End-of-the-earth. 

He had a terrible time reaching Stella, because his poor old 
body was so sore that every step hurt him and he had never 
been so glad in his life as when he at last saw her. 

As soon as he had drunk from the Get-little-pool, Stella and 
the Brownies bathed him with cool fresh water to make the 
sore places well. 


THE PORCUPINE 


“You poor thing,” Stella said, as she 
poured water over his cuts and bruises, 
“I feel very sorry for you. You must 
have had a bad fight.” 

“I feel sorry for myself ” said the Porcupine, “very sorry. 
In fact no one could possibly feel as sorry for me as I feel for 
myself. ‘A fight,’ you say. A fight—there were three fights 
—and each one was worse than the others. It was simply 
horrible.” 

Then Stella asked him why he had come to see her. 

“I came,” he said, “because I wanted to tell you my story 
and see if there is anything you can do that will keep 
me out of any more trouble. You see, this is how it 
is. If any one wants to bother me there is really 
nothing I can do to protect myself. I mean by that, 
there is no way for me to fight them so that they can’t 
hurt me. The only thing I can do is to try and get 
away, and by that time I am always very badly hurt. Is there 
anything you can do for me?” 

“Yes,” answered Stella, “of course there must be something 
I can do.” 

She put on her thinking cap. It had only been on her 
head a moment when she knew what to do for the Porcu¬ 
pine. 

Taking her wand she waved it around him three times. 

All of a sudden he had a prickly feeling in his skin, and as 
he was looking at himself to see what was the matter, he saw 




THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


hundreds and hundreds of queer little needles stick out all 
over his body. 

“What can those be?” he asked in astonishment. “I never 
saw anything so strange.” 

“Those needles,” Stella told him, “are instead 
of hair or fur, and, what is more, if things want 
to come near you to hurt you, all you have to do 
is to shoot a needle at them. It will stick in 
them and bother them so much that they will run 
away as quickly as they can and leave you in 
peace. After this I know you will have no more 

trouble.” 

“How perfectly splendid!” the Porcupine said. “It’s won¬ 
derful. Thank you very much. I am glad that you did this 
for me. Now I won’t have to be afraid of everything, and I 
won’t have to hide all the time. Good-by, Stella. I am very 
much obliged.” 

Stella stood and watched him for a long while after he had 
started for home. 

As she was looking at him, he ran near a big snake—a big 
black one with angry, yellow eyes. 

The Snake curled up and hissed at him, and the Porcupine 
was very frightened, for he knew that the Snake was going to 
spring at him. 

The first thing he knew a needle shot from him straight into 
the Snake. The next thing he knew the Snake was gliding 
away just as fast as it could go. 



THE PORCUPINE 



I don’t know which was the most surprised, the Snake or the 
Porcupine. 

The Porcupine turned around, and he saw Stella watching 
him. 

“Did you see that?” he called back to her. 

“I should think I did,” she said. “I’ve been watching you 
because I wanted to see how your needles would work.” 

“They work beautifully,” he answered. “I won’t have 
trouble any more. Thanks again. You’ve been very good 
to me.” 

Stella waved her hand to him. 

“No, you won’t,” she said. “Good-by and good luck.” 

“Good-by,” he called, as he shot a needle into the air just 
for the fun of it; “good-by.” 

Now you know why the Porcupine is covered with needles: 
so that he can protect himself when anything wants to fight 
him. And they protect him wonderfully too! 




XV 

THE CATERPILLAR WHO WAS TIRED OF HIMSELF 

I AM sure that you have often seen caterpillars walking 
very slowly on the ground or along the trees and 
bushes. 

Some are smooth, and some have fuzzy hair all 
over them. 

A caterpillar has lots and lots of tiny legs under¬ 
neath each side, and it walks by holding up its head 
and the front part of its body, then putting it down 
again farther along, and while that part of it is on 
the ground it draws up its back legs to where its head 
was before. Each time it does this it finds itself 
only a little farther along than it was; so you can imagine how 
slow it is, and what a long time it takes to go very far. 













THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


Would you like to hear 
about the Caterpillar that 
went to Stella? 

He was a smooth, fat little 
fellow, and he was green, with 
pretty black dots along his 
sides. 

I do not know who told him 
about the Wishing-Fairy; but 
he had heard of her from some 
one—maybe it was from the 
Squirrel, because the Squirrel 
was often hopping and play¬ 
ing around the wild carrot 
flowers where the Caterpillar 
lived. 

The Caterpillar made up 
his mind to go see Stella, and 
though he knew that she lived at the End-of-the-earth, he 
didn’t know how to get there, but he started off in that direc¬ 
tion anyhow. 

It was too bad; but the poor little thing started the wrong 
way, and the first thing he knew he came to a big river, 
and he couldn’t go any farther because he could not swim. 

He was very tired by this time and very unhappy, for he 
didn’t know what to do; so he stretched himself along a blade 
of grass to rest a bit. He stayed there a long while, and 
thought and thought and thought. 










THE CATERPILLAR WHO WAS TIRED 


He was thinking how he could get across that river. 

All of a sudden he saw a big leaf floating on the water. 

“Aha!” he thought, “that is just the thing. I shall drag a 
leaf over to the river, put it on the water, and it will be my 
boat, and then when it floats over to the other side of the river 
I can get off—and I will be just where I now wish I were.” 

He was glad that he had thought of this. He walked down 
from the blade of gras, crawled up a tree and bit off a big leaf 
from the first branch he came to. 

The leaf was very heavy for him, and he had a hard time 
dragging it to the river; but at last he got it there. He 
crawled on to it as quickly as he could, and the first thing he 
knew off his little leaf-boat floated, with him sitting very com¬ 
fortably in the middle of it. 

At first he was afraid of falling off or of being gobbled up 
by a fish; because fish love to eat caterpillars. He was also 
afraid that some bird might see him and fly above the leaf so 
as to catch him; because birds also eat caterpillars and worms 
and other fat and juicy things. 

But the fishes couldn’t see him. All they could see was a 
big leaf floating above them on the water, and the birds didn’t 






THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


see him, because he was green, and as he was sitting on a green 
leaf he looked just the same color as the leaf. 

The poor little Caterpillar kept watching above for birds in 
the sky and below for fish in the water. 

Oh! he was awfully frightened. 

After a while when no fishes or birds had bothered him, he 
wasn’t quite so frightened; so he lay on his leaf in the warm 
sun and looked around at everything he passed; and how he 
enjoyed it! 

And he went to sleep! Fast asleep!! 

All the time he slept the leaf was floating nearer and nearer 
the other side of the river, and at last it bumped against the 
ground. It bumped so hard that the Caterpillar woke up with 
a start and fell off on the earth alongside the river. 

“Goodness, gracious! I wonder what has happened and 
where I can be,” he said to himself, but in a moment, when he 
was wide awake, he suddenly remembered everything, and 
looked all around to see where he was. 

And how happy he was to see that he was just where he 
had wanted to be—on the other side of the river! 

As soon as he knew that, he began crawling as fast as he 
could; but even when a caterpillar goes as fast as it can, it can¬ 
not go very fast; therefore, it took him the longest kind of a 
time to reach the End-of-the-earth. 

When at last he got there, the first thing he did was to fall 
asleep again. He had never been so tired in all his life; so he 
slept and slept and slept. 

What do you think woke him up? 


THE CATERPILLAR WHO WAS TIRED 



“Lazy thing, nothing,” answered the poor little Caterpillar, 
who was wriggling around and very angry. “If you had 
crawled as far as I have you would be tired too, and you would 
want to sleep as much as I do. I wish you would stop tickling 
me with that blade of grass. It will make me laugh—and I 
don’t want to laugh. I am much too tired. I wish you would 
go away,” he added. “I don’t like to be teased and tickled.” 

“Very well,” answered the Brownie, “I suppose you are 
right. It isn’t very nice to tease any one; but you looked so 
sleepy that I couldn’t help wanting to wake you up and find 
out what you are doing here. What do you want, anyhow?” 

“I want to visit the Wishing-Fairy,” the Caterpillar an- 


THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


swered. “I think she must live somewhere around here. 
Have you ever heard of her?” 

“I should think I have,” laughed the Brownie. “Why, I 
take care of her. She lives here” 

“Oh! isn’t that wonderful?” the Caterpillar cried out. “I 
am so glad that I am near her. Where is she? Could I see 
her soon—now?” 

“Well,” answered the Brownie, “you will see her soon; but 
you cannot see her now, as she is somewhere around riding on 
her butterfly.” 

“Do you think she will ride very long?” the Caterpillar 
asked. 

“No,” said the Brownie; “she has been away for quite a 
while already. I think she ought to be back any minute now. 
Why, there she is,” he added. “Look,”—and he pointed with 
the blade of grass (which he still held in his hand) to show 
the Caterpillar where Stella was coming nearer and nearer to 
them on her butterfly. 

“Isn’t she beautiful!” the Caterpillar cried, as she rode up 
to them. 

“Indeed, she is,” the Brownie said, and then he turned to her. 
“Here is some one who has come from very far away to see 
you, Stella.” 

“I’m very glad you came,” Stella said to the Caterpillar. 
“You are so small already that you won’t have to drink out of 
our Get-little-pool,” and off she hopped from the butterfly’s 


THE CATERPILLAR WHO WAS TIRED 


back. “Come over and sit by me and tell me what you wanted 
to see me about^x 

The Caterpillar crawled over to her, and they both sat side 
by side on a flower that was growing near them. She was 
waving her wand around as she spoke. 

“What is that?” asked the Caterpillar, pointing to the wand. 

“That,” said Stella, “is what I use when I make wishes come 
true.” 

“Oh!” whispered the Caterpillar, but that was all he said, 
though he was very curious. He wanted to ask her more about 
it, but he didn’t. Instead, he said very softly, “I have a wish. 
I hope you can make it come true for me.” 

“What is it? Tell me.” 

“Well,” began the Caterpillar, “I am tired of being myself. 
I hate it.” 

“What do you mean?” asked Stella. 

“Just what I say,” the Caterpillar answered. “I am tired of 
always having to crawl and creep on the ground and of being 
slow—because I cannot go fast, no matter how hard I try. I 
am always afraid that some bird will see me and gobble me up 
before I have time to get away. I am just tired of it all, and 
I wish I could be something else. Do you think you could 
make me something else? Please think of a way.” 

Stella put her little hand over her eyes and she thought and 
thought and thought. At last she asked: 

“Do you know what happens when people die?” 


THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


“No, I don’t think I do,” the Caterpillar answered. “What 
happens?” 

“Well, it is this way,” Stella began. “They go to sleep for 
a long while, and when they wake up they find themselves in 
Heaven with God and His angels, and they find that they are 
quite different from what they were before they died.” 

“In what way?” asked the Caterpillar. 

“In every way,” answered Stella. “To begin with, they are 
perfectly lovely; they are perfectly happy, 
and also they are perfectly good. Any trou¬ 
bles they may have had are gone, and they 
never can do anything that is bad. That is 
the very reason they are so happy—because they are in 
Heaven.” 

“Then, I want to die,” said the poor little Caterpillar 
quickly. “Make me die, Stella dear.” 

“You won’t have to die—you poor little thing,” Stella began, 
“I will find a way,” and she started thinking again. “I know. 
I will have you build a little thing around you and we will call 
it a cocoon, and you can go fast asleep in your cocoon, and when 
you wake up you will be a—a butterfly.” 

“Oh! how wonderful!” cried the Caterpillar. “How I 
should love to be a butterfly and fly away up in the sunshine 
and never have to crawl slowly along on the ground. It 
would be lovely; but, Stella, I don’t know how to build a 
cocoon. How can I do it?” 

“That will be easy,” said Stella; “you will spin it. If you 



THE CATERPILLAR WHO WAS TIRED 


will wriggle slowly from side to side you will begin to spin. 
Try it.” 

So the Caterpillar started to wriggle and wriggle on the stem 
of the flower, and soon he found that he was spinning a fine 
little silk thread around him and the stem. 

“Go on,” said Stella. “Don’t stop until I tell you to.” 
And all the time he was wriggling from side to side in the 
cocoon she was waving her wand over the Caterpillar. 

At last she told the Caterpillar to stop. 

“Is the cocoon finished?” he called back from the inside of 
it, for by this time he was all covered with silk. “What does 
it look like?” 

“It looks like a lovely little gray 
ball, only it isn’t round. It is longer. 

It is about the shape of a peanut, and 
it is nice and thick and will keep you 
warm so that you can sleep in it until 
you wake up, and when you wake up 
the cocoon will break open and you 
will be a butterfly and fly out of it.” 

Stella had to say this very loud. She 
could not speak softly because the 
Caterpillar was tucked away in the in¬ 
side of his cocoon and he would not 
have been able to hear her. 

“How lovely that will be!” the 
Caterpillar answered. “I shall be so 













THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


happy. I want to thank you very very much for making my 
wish come true.” 

“Well,” answered Stella, “I am happy because you are. 
Now, you had better go to sleep. Good night, dear.” 

“Good night,” answered the Caterpillar in a sleepy voice 
from away inside his cocoon. “Good night.” 

So now you know how it is that Caterpillars spin little co¬ 
coons around themselves and sleep in them where they are 
warm, all through the long, cold winter. In the spring, 
when the sunshine is nice and hot, the cocoon bursts open and 
out flys a beautiful butterfly. 





XVII 

BROTHER AND SISTER VISIT THE WISHING-FAIRY 

two children had been put to bed; but through 
the open windows they could hear the birds 
singing about the things that had happened to 
them that day and calling good night to one an¬ 
other from tree to tree. 

The children lay in their beds and listened to 
them. Though they had thought they were 
tired, it was so warm that somehow they could 
not go to sleep. 

“Sister,” the little boy said, “I think it would 
be fun to get up and go out in the garden.” 

“I think it would be nice too,” answered the little girl, “but 







THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 



the things that our nurse 
would say to us if we did it 
wouldn’t be so nice. She 
would be very angry.” 

“Yes,” said the little boy, “that is true; but let’s do it just the 
same.” 

You see the little boy often did things that the nurse thought 
were naughty, and that is how he would sometimes get into 
trouble, and would have to be punished. 

The children had a dog. His name was “Jeff.” 

Jeff always slept on the floor near the little boy’s bed, and 
as the children were talking, Jeff jumped up, had a big 
stretch, and came over to the little boy who by this time was 
getting up. Jeff stood, his tongue hanging out, watching a mo¬ 
ment, and then he trotted over to the little girl. She too was 
getting out of bed. Jeff kissed her little toes; it tickled, so she 
began laughing. 

“You know, Brother,” she said, “I really 
think that Jeff understands what we are talking 
about. Don’t you?” 

“I don’t think it—I know it,” he answered. 

“You understand us, don’t 
you, Jeff?” 

Jeff barked once or twice, 
and he ran around to where 
the little boy was sitting and 
took his hand in his mouth. 






BROTHER AND SISTER 


He barked a bit, still holding Brother’s hand in his mouth as 
though he wanted the boy to come with him. 

“What shall we do?” Sister asked, “and where shall we go?” 

“Let’s get our two goats and go for a ride. What would 
you like to do, Sister?” 

“That would be splendid,” she answered. “Come, but we 
must be very quiet so that no one will hear us.” 

Jeff was still holding Brother’s hand with his warm little 
mouth, and pulling and pulling and pulling. He was trying 
to make him go with him, so Brother said, 

“Come along, Sister. It looks as though Jeff wants to lead 
us somewhere. Come. Hurry.” 

Jeff ran out of the room, still leading the little boy by the 
hand, and the little girl followed as fast as she could. 

The dog ran straight to the stable where the children’s two 
goats were kept. As soon as the goats were untied, they rushed 
out of the stable. As they ran the tinkling of bells could be 
heard, for around the neck of each was tied a little bell. On 
Brother’s goat it was 
tied with a pink ribbon, 
and around Sister’s 
goat a blue ribbon held 
the bell in place. 

The goats began nib¬ 
bling the grass, and 
every now and then 
they would look at the 
children and the dog in 





THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


such a surprised way, as though they were wondering what 
they were doing down in the stable so late; at an hour when 
they were usually fast asleep. 

“Come along, Nanny,” the little boy cried to his goat. 
“Stop eating grass, you greedy thing. Sister and I are go¬ 
ing to ride. Sister, shall I help you to get up on Snowy?” 

But she was already on Snowy’s 
back. Snowy was the name of 
her goat. 

Presently off they started; each 
child riding a goat, the bells were 
going tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, and 
Jeff ran on ahead barking and 
jumping here and there, while 
every other second he would turn 
around to see that they were following him. 

They rode a long while. The moon made everything al¬ 
most as light as day, so that they could see very clearly in 
the woods through which they were now passing. 

Now and then a fox would run by, and some bird that had 
wakened would sing out a sleepy little song. 

The children liked it very much, for they had never before 
been in the woods at night They had always been home in 
their beds at that hour. 

“I am tired, Brother,” the little girl said at last. 

“So am I,” said Brother. “Let’s stop and go to sleep for 
a while.” 



BROTHER AND SISTER 


“Go to sleep in the woods?” 

“Yes; why not? We can lie down on some soft moss and 
we will be very comfortable. Here,”—and he jumped down 
from his goat—“I’ll show you.” 

So they lay down in each other’s arms. A goat was on 
either side, and the dog was curled up as close to the children 
as he could get. 

They were so comfortable that 
in a few minutes they were all 
five fast asleep. 

They never woke up until the 
sun was streaming through the 
trees. The first thing they did 
was to bathe in a little brook that 
ran by. Jeff jumped in and had 
a nice swim. The goats only drank some water. 

There were lots of berries growing near them, so that the 
children found plenty to eat, and had all they wanted for 
breakfast and were soon on their way again. 

—where Jeff was leading them, riding to the End-of-the-earth. 

When they reached Stella’s home the Brownies came run¬ 
ning out to see what the tinkle, tinkle of bells could be. 

How surprised they were when they saw two goats, ridden 
by two children, with a dog jumping and barking on ahead. 

Jeff ran up to one of the Brownies. “Hello,” the Brownie 
called to him; “you are so big that you frighten me almost 
to death. You haven’t yet drunk out of the Get-little-pool. 



THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 



You ought to do that before you come so near to me or to 
Stella.” 

“I want to talk with you a bit before I do that,” Jeff an¬ 
swered. 

“Very well, then,” said the Brownie, “but stay where you 
are. Don’t come any nearer. You are too large.” 

“I won’t hurt you,” Jeff said to him. “I wouldn’t hurt any 
one. Don’t you know that the dog is the best friend that peo¬ 
ple have? Take me, for instance; I love Brother and Sister 
more than anything in the world; there isn’t anything I 
wouldn’t do for them. That is really how we happen to be 
here.” 

“What do you mean?” the Brownie asked. 



BROTHER AND SISTER 


“I mean,”—and Jeff squatted down on his hind legs—“that 
the reason we are here is because I had heard all the animals 
and birds talking about Stella and how she makes wishes come 
true. So I brought the two children here. They don’t know 
anything about Stella yet because they cannot understand when 
animals and birds talk. The children think that we can't talk 
and that our sounds are only noises and don’t mean anything. 
So I, knowing as I do about the End-of-the-earth Fairy, have 
always wanted to lead them here. I was under the little boy’s 
bed when I heard them say that they were going to get up and 
go out. I thought it would be a good chance to bring them to 
Stella— So I did, and here we are.” 

“Now that you are here, what do you want?” the Brownie 
asked. 

“My wish is that Stella should do something for the two 
children.” 

“What?” asked the Brownie. 

“I don’t quite know,” Jeff answered. “Stella would know 
better than I. I am going to tell her that I want her to think 
of the loveliest thing she possibly can to make the children 
happy, and, whatever it may be, to do it for them. You see, 
I love them so very much that I want them always to be 
happy—even after they are no longer children but have grown 
up. Do you think Stella could think of something that would 
always keep them happy?” 

“How should I know?” the Brownie said. “I think she 
can do anything though; in fact, I know it,” he added. “I 


THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


will go and tell her what you have just said, and then you 
and she can talk together. While I am gone, go and drink 
out of the Get-little-pool, and make the children do the same 
thing. Will you be able to make them do it?” 

“Yes, indeed,” Jeff said. “They are so thirsty that all I 
will have to do is to lead them to the Get-little-pool, and the 
minute they see it they will want to drink from it.” 

And that was exactly what happened. Jeff ran to the chil¬ 
dren, took the little boy’s hand in his mouth and led him to 
the pool. The little girl followed. 

“Brother,” she cried when they first saw the pool, “see, there 
is some water. Let us kneel beside it and drink. I am aw¬ 
fully thirsty.” 

The moment they had tasted the water the children and 
Jeff became very, very small; in fact, they were so small that 
their goats could¬ 
n’t even see them, 
and began run¬ 
ning here and 
there looking for 
them. 

Another thing 
that happened 
was, that as soon 
as they had tasted 
the water they sud¬ 
denly could un¬ 
der stand Jeff 










BROTHER AND SISTER 


when he spoke to them, and this was what he said to them: 

“Don’t be frightened, Brother and Sister. Even though we 
are so tiny, everything is all right. We will be made big again 
when it is time for us to go back to our world.” 

“What does all this mean, Jeff?” Sister asked. “Why did 
you bring us here?” 



“Yes, why?” Brother also asked. “Tell us all about every¬ 
thing and tell us why we are suddenly so small. I don’t like 
it.” 

“Neither do I,” the little girl said. 

They felt differently, however, after Jeff had explained 
everything to them, and they were glad that they had come. 
They were so curious to know what was going to happen next 
that they could hardly wait to see Stella. 

Just then she came with the Brownie who had gone to fetch 
her. 





THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


“Oh! Stella,” the little girl cried out; “you are the most 
beautiful thing I have ever seen. May I touch your dress?” 

“Certainly,” said Stella. “It is made out of rose petals.” 

“What is a petal?” the little boy asked. 

“A petal,” answered Stella, “is a flower leaf; not a leaf on 
the stem of the flower, but one of the leaves that are part of 
the flower itself.” 

“Have you many dresses?” the little girl asked. 

“Yes, indeed,” said Stella; “I have a dress made out of every 
kind of flower.” 

“What a lot you must have!” said the little boy. “But don’t 
they fade?” 

“No,” she said, and seeing that they were wondering why, 
she added, so that they would understand, “They don’t fade 
because they belong to me, and I, as you know, am a fairy.” 

“Who makes them for you?” was the next question. 

Stella smiled. 

“There is an insect called the darning-needle. I have one 
who sews for me. My darning-needle has made all my 
dresses.” The Fairy turned to Jeff: “My Brownie told me 
that it was you who brought the two children here. You did 
right, and I am glad, for it is a good thing. Your wish is very 
wonderful, and I am going to make it come true.” 

“What is Jeff’s wish?” asked both the children when they 
heard this. 

“I didn’t know Jeff ever wanted anything that I did not 
give him,” added the little boy. “He always has plenty to eat 


BROTHER AND SISTER 


and drink, and my sister and I never play without him, and he 
sleeps near me and we are always good to (him—never tease 
him or anything like that and we never even pull his tail.” 

“That is why Jeff’s wish is what it is,” Stella said. “He 
loves you both so much that he wants nothing for himself. 
What he wants is for you . He wishes that I should give you 
the loveliest thing I could possibly think of.” 

“How dear of Jeff,” the children both said, as they put 
their arms around the dog’s neck and hugged him. “And 
what is the loveliest thing you can think of?” the little girl 
asked. 

“That you should both always be happy,” and Stella smiled 
on them as she said this. “I am going to wave my wand three 
times over you, and after that all your life you will always be 
happy.” 

While she waved the wand above their heads she did not 
stop speaking: “You shall both have love in your hearts, and 
as long as one loves, one is happy. You shall love everything 
and all people, all animals, birds, fish and everything that lives, 
and never hurt any one or anything. You shall love every¬ 
thing that grows. You shall love the colors and the sounds of 
this wonderful world of ours, and the clouds that float above us 
in the sky across the sun. You shall love to see the moon that 
shines at night and makes everything so beautiful. You shall 
love the rain and will see and listen to it with pleasure. Chil¬ 
dren, as long as you love everything—you will be good—and 
happy. I could not give you more than this.” 


THE WISHING-FAIRY’S ANIMAL FRIENDS 


The two children could hardly believe their ears. They 
were so glad that tears of joy were in their eyes, and they al¬ 
most thought it was all a dream. 

They both rushed into Stella’s arms and kissed and thanked 
her. 

Afterwards, after they had drunk from the Get-big-pool and 
were again as big as they had been before, after they had ridden 
their goats home, even after they were grown-up people and 
had troubles that all grown-up people have, all through their 
lives they were happy because they loved every one and every¬ 
thing. 

Don’t ever forget this; for what the Wishing-Fairy gave to 
them she has also given to you. 


















































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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 


0005S7S0T13 




